Japan train suicide

Jumping in front of trains to kill oneself is just as popular as always in Japan.

According to the transport ministry, suicides accounted for 45 percent of 679 cases of “traffic disturbances” that led to a temporary discontinuation of train services or delays of 30 minutes or more in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures in fiscal 2008.

Suicide via method of train is so common now that it has become a readily used excuse.

an increasingly used excuse for tardiness in this land of punctuality has been readily accepted by even the toughest bosses: Someone jumped in front of the train

Few examples of what happened within 2 hours on the evening of December 9th.

At 5:15 p.m. that day, a 51-year-old man from Ibaraki Prefecture died after being hit by a train at a JR station in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.

A JR employee and several passengers saw the man jump on the track from the platform. Although no suicide note was found, the man had a history of suicide attempts.

At 5:55 p.m., a 65-year-old man was killed by a train after entering a Keisei Line railway crossing in Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward.

The man had no job, was on welfare and lived in a cheap lodging house in Tokyo’s Sanya district.

According to his friends, the man’s health had been deteriorating.

At 6:09 p.m., a woman believed to be a foreign national was run over by a JR train in Saitama. She had been staying in Japan for the birth of her grandchild.

“I had lots of stress because of the difference in the language and lifestyle (in Japan),” she said in a suicide note.

At 7:25 p.m., a pharmacist jumped toward an oncoming train from a station platform on the Tokyu Line in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Death via train suicide is widespread, but it only account’s for 2% of annual suicides in japan where over 30 thousand suicides occur. Because of train suicide, train companies have tried to do many things to stop it;

such as building fences on platforms, to prevent commuters from falling on the tracks or coming into accidental contact with moving trains